mtg story spoilers ahead.

...in stark contrast to my last gigantic rant about MtG's story, the stories for March of the Machine were actually really good. by simple virtue of having more time and space to tell them, the consequences felt more real, the character's motivations and states were more explored, and the events that happened felt earned and were delivered well. characters actually died, and some lived - but not without cost. Nissa and Ajani get to live on, but at the cost of Karn's spark and Melira's life. Jace and Vraska's fates are unknown. Nahiri and Lukka are just plain dead (couldn't have happened to better people, tbh), and Tamiyo is...a...text-ghost?? which I presume is kind of like being dead - I can't imagine she still has her spark or her magic like that. it all feels very much like there was an *actual* gigantic battle, and it was costly to win, but there was a victory unquestionably.

the vignettes about the invasions of various planes were, on the whole, very good and really brought up the tension and fear of the Phyrexian invasions - making absolute monsters out of the invading zombie-robots that rightly inspire terror in everyone unfamiliar with them. the one about Zendikar was the Big Suck, but I'm gonna gloss over that one because it was mostly about Nahiri and honestly she gets what she deserves - not just narratively, but in quality of writing as well.

despite a really, *and I mean really* rough lead-in, I think March of the Machine is MtG finally getting the "epic, grand-scale battle" story right. Battle for Zendikar felt tropey and overhyping of the Gatewatch, taking out Ulamog and Kozilek *way* too early and frankly too easily. War of the Spark was--actually you know what let's just pretend War of the Spark never happened. but MoM felt good. The length of the story was just right, with plenty of ups and downs, rises and falls for the heroes, and - and this part is key - a lot of characters getting to matter. characters normally relegated to being B-list actors got to be major players and do things that were huge for them - Wrenn speaking with Realmbreaker and convincing it to save the planes (what a great moment, so obvious and yet I didn't think of it), Karn fighting his pacifism and guilt to kill a true evil that absolutely needed to die for the sake of everyone (yes!), Ral Zarek whopping Vraska in one blow (my boy), and all the legends of the planes fighting against the invasion in their own ways and in ways that fit the themes and tropes of those planes - not just throwing spells on a battlefield.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really enjoyed reading this, and I hope we retain this level of quality for any future stories. and for god's sake please give the writers this much room to breathe for *everything* from here on - letting the writers have more chapters to write and more space to explore makes the writing *so* much better.

campaign update.

my Victorian England investigation campaign is in full swing. Our world is close to earth but we included all the d&d things like magic and stuff. We opted for the Greek deities as the pantheon and have created an alternative creation story for our world. The investigators are currently looking into the activities of Jack the Ripper (who the had already caught once by sheer luck) who has recently escaped prison due to the machinations of the organization he belongs to, The Cult of Phyrexia (yes i stole it from magic the gathering, no i’m not sorry, and yes, it is awesome). The first world’s fair is swiftly approaching as the investigators have found the corpse of the halfling salvage diver they were hired to find (he had been missing and was seemingly abducted by people that didn’t seem to be jack, or that’s just what a drunk drifter told them) . The man had been a victim of jack’s it seems. 

But lets flash back to how the session began. The session started out with them discovering the diver’s charts which indicated a ground breaking find that he had discovered and was working on salvaging. Then the window sprung open and wind pushed through and the invisible stalker who was haunting the place per the kidnapper’s orders attempted to steal the charts. the battle was quickly decided when the bard succeeded in turning the elemental into a turtle via polymorph (i ruled it worked, for all those who would oppose my rulings in my own home game). they then put the turtle into a diving suit and released the spell. This is the only time i could see an invisible stalker captured by physical means, it was awesome to roleplay what had basically become a balloon man as they interrogated him. 

After dealing with that they acquired the aid of a local wizard whose specialty was in fact water based spells. They then set off to the marking on the chart. They ended up diving over 300 feet down a underwater canyon barely avoiding a giant shark as they descended. They found the find, a sunken galleon whose lost cargo was protected by a trio of Chull (large crawdad people who can paralyze people with their tentacle mouths as well as naturally sense magic). After a tough fight during which they discovered that the diving suits were a excellent counter to the chull’s paralysis touch they gathered the treasure.

Amongst  the loot was a broken tablet dating to the war betwixt the gods and titans. It bore a strange language. There was also a scroll written by Ulysses himself, also in this strange language. They were able to translate it and returned to London with hopes of learning more by giving it to the museum. That brings it full circle to what i had mentioned previously about Jack the Ripper and the dead halfling diver.

send me messages if you want to know more about the world, the game, or whatever.